In absorbent garments (diapers, diaper pants and incontinence diapers), bodily exudates are absorbed by an absorbent core positioned in a crotch region of the garment. Typically, the exposure of the core to exudates is unevenly distributed in time, i.e. insults of e.g. urine or faces occur within a short time interval on separate occasions. Hereby, it can happen that the absorbent core is not capable of absorbing all exudates essentially within the short time interval of the insult. Consequently, exudates can flow or distribute over the absorbent core towards edges of the garment, leading to possible leakages. In order to resolve this, barriers are provided on the body-facing side of the garment which attempt to contain the exudates within the boundaries of the garment.
Many absorbent garments thereto comprise leg barriers which are provided around and/or near the leg holes of the garment, having as main function to keep the sides of the garment against the wearer's legs during use to contain the exudates. Alternatively or in addition, many absorbent garments may comprise leg cuffs which are provided longitudinally on the body-facing side of the garment, near the transverse edges of the garment, and which are configured to be elevated over the absorbent core and/or topsheet of the garment such that a space is obtained between the wearer and the topsheet of the garment at the crotch region. This space allows temporary storage of the exudates and prevents at least partially that exudates are pushed outwards due to the pressure exerted thereon by the wearer's buttocks and the garment. In many cases, both leg barriers and leg cuffs are provided on the absorbent garment to provide a double protection against leakages.
European patent application EP 1 199 058 A1 discloses a disposable wearing article which includes a substantially liquid-impervious leak-barrier cuff which has a fixed end portion lying in the vicinity of a longitudinal end portion of an article, a free end portion extending from the fixed end portion toward a crotch region and fixed lateral end portions lying on transversely opposite side edge portions of the article. The free end portion is normally biased by an elastic member attached to the free end portion to rise over a topsheet and being locally bonded to the article in retaining zones.
European patent application EP 2 410 966 A1 discloses an absorbent article which is provided with a waist-cuff to prevent body waste from leaking beyond a waist-opening. An elastic sheet is used for the waist-cuff to be held in contact with the wearer's skin even if the wearer moves. The waist-cuff and a chassis may be joined to each other so as to be separated from each other in the vicinity of an absorbent structure to assure that fitness of the waist-cuff to the wearer's skin is not significantly affected by movement of the wearer and, at the same time, to assure that leg-cuffs can rise without being collapsed by the waist-cuff. The ends of the leg-cuffs are interleaved between the waist-cuff and the chassis to prevent body waste from leaking through a clearance which would otherwise be defined between the leg-cuffs and the waist-cuff.
European patent application EP 0 779 802 A2 discloses a disposable diaper having a waist pocket cuff is disclosed. The pocket cuff has an open edge having an apex. The open edge extends between ends joined to the distal edges of barrier cuffs. The open edge is elastically biased to form the open edge apex along the longitudinal centerline of the disposable diaper.
There remains a need in the art for a disposable absorbent hygiene article, suitable to be worn around the waist of a wearer, with improved leakage barrier at the sides of the article, as well as at the waist front and/or waist back of the article.
There also remains a need in the art for a disposable absorbent hygiene article, suitable to be worn around the waist of a wearer, with a leakage barrier at the sides of the article, as well as at the waist front and/or waist back of the article, which can be easily constructed with less material and less production steps.
There also remains a need in the art for methods and apparatuses for manufacturing said leakage barrier and said hygiene article. The present invention aims to resolve at least some of the problems mentioned above.